Archive for August, 2007
The United States reigns with costume parties around Halloween. Children, adults and teens that are over the age of going door to door dress up instead and attend parties. Movies are rife with instances of costume parties in the United States.
Mardi Gras time, in Louisiana and other parts of the United States also draws many costume parties. Books and movie releases abound that carry a Halloween costume party theme, and science fiction and fantasy events all favor Halloween themes. Even Oscar parties that were focused on Lord of the Rings were in essence costume parties, and Episode I of the Star Wars trilogy were celebrated by a costume party. Harry Potter theme parties are also costume parties.
In the United Kingdom, ‘Boxing Day’, with a man dressed as ‘Wolverine’, the ‘X-Men’ anti-hero heralded the 2006 festivities, as ‘Boxing Day in Wigan’ is still popular with its fancy dress amongst revelers.
The Royal Family favors fancy dress parties, and these are popular all year round in England. Prince William of the British Royal Family celebrated his twenty-first birthday by having an ‘Out of Africa’ theme closely related to the movie of same name. On the other hand, Princess Beatrice for her eighteenth birthday chose an 1888 theme party, while in January of 2005, Prince Harry made headlines by wearing an Afrika Corps uniform with a Nazi armband to a costume party. Ms. Bridget Jones, on the other hand, favored a classical ‘tarts and vicars’ style theme for her latest party.
The largest outcry came against Prince Harry however, and he was splashed across tabloids in his costume, especially in the Sunday tabloid, ‘News of the World.’
Hand Bag Game Nice game to get everyone settled.
Start with each person taking 3 items from their handbag + placing them in separate paper bags. Then give them to a nominated person who opens each bag in turn. The rest of the party has to guess who they belong to. 6. Truth or Hen Night Dare Use the cards below for this game. Starting with the Bride-To-Be, take a Truth Question Card. The bride has to answer the question truthfully or take a Dare Card. Get to know all the gory details before the speeches.
Consequences
Use the following headings: Her name, , his name, where they had sex, what position and who caught them doing it! Fold over the paper after each heading and pass on to the person on the left. At the end, unfold and read out the story.
Condom Fitter
Put a condom on a courgette with your mouth. Have a saucy prize and a round of applause for the person who can put a condom on a courgette in the quickest time only using their mouth.
Male Model
Split into teams and model male body parts using play dough (see 29 for recipe) giving points for realism and/or optimism. Try modelling blindfold for further laughs. Buy play dough or make it from the recipe below. You’ll need lots. 2 cups flour, 2 tblsp cream of tartar, 1 cup salt, 1 tablespoon oil, red food colouring. Mix all ingredients in a pan, cook over a medium heat until stiff. Allow to cool a bit and knead. Feels fantastic!!
Musical Chairs
You might think you need music for this game but you don’t only a set of questions. If the ladies answer to the questions you read is yes, she must move one place to the right. If the answer is no she stays where she is. This means people will be sitting on each other’s laps etc. It is the first one to sit back down where they started. So make sure you have a long set of question just in case or use the set of thruths / questions I sell on eBay.
Ibble Dibble
Everyone in the group gets a number starting with Ibble Dibble One, Ibble Dibble Two and so on. Ibble Dibble One starts and says, “Ibble Dibble One, with no Dibbles calls Ibble Dibble (any other number present but lets say ‘Three’) with no dibbles” Then it is Ibble Dibble Three’s turn to say, “Ibble Dibble Three with no dibbles, calls Ibble Dibble ‘Four’ with no Dibbles,” “Where’s the fun in that?” I hear you cry.
Well, as soon as someone makes a mistake with their Ibble Dibble sentence they must have a Dibble of Lippy/burnt cork on their faces. Now they have to say, “Ibble Dibble Four with one dibble calls Ibble Dibble one with no Dibbles,” and anyone calling Ibble Dibble Four must remember she has one dibble. But the more drink consumed the more Dibbles appear and the more Dibbles appear the more mistakes are made and the more drink is consumed, like a vicious circle, do you see?
In the end everyone (except some smart arse - there’s always one) is covered in red or black splodges and rolling on the floor laughing.
The roots of the holiday are as such: Shortened in name from All-Hallow-Even, taking place on the evening of or before ‘All Hallows’ Day’, or ‘All Saints Day’, this prior Pagan holiday was a day of festivities in Northern Europe. Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV were responsible for allocating the Christian Feast of ‘All Saints Day’ from the dates of May 13 to November 1. The move was initiated in order to supplant the original Pagan feast with a Christian Feast Day. Because of the measuring of sunset to sunset, according to the Florentine Calendar, the days of ‘All Hallows’ and ‘All Saints’ were now the same day.
The Irish tradition of ‘All Hallows’ Eve’ is still respected and followed, and the terminology remains the same. Festivals that occur are referred to as ‘Samhain’ or ‘Oiche Shamhna’, to the Irish, ‘Samhuin’ to the Scottish/Gaelic, ‘Calan Gaeaf’ to the Welsh, ‘Allantide’ to the Cornish and ‘Hop-tu-Naa’ to the Manx. Some parts of Ireland also refer to Halloween as ‘pooky night’, using the mischievous spirit, ‘puca’ as a basis for the folklore.
Magic is considered most potent during Halloween, and it’s considered a liminal time of the year. Irish tales of the ‘Sidhe’ abound as well as tall tales throughout other cultures, and ‘witch lore’, tails of witches and hobgoblins abound throughout the world.
